Tortillas, and the corn used to make them, have been a Mexican staple for thousands of years. So it's no surprise that tens of thousands packed into Mexico City's central Zocalo plaza to protest a spike in the price of tortillas and other staple goods.

For Marianne Jennings, a healthy market economy depends on four pillars — business, investors, government and customers. Each relies on the others in a symbiotic relationship that leads to mutual benefit and smooth operations.

A lot of companies focus on competition, innovation and cost-cutting to drive cash flow. But according to Ruth Bolton, marketing professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business, successful firms understand that cash flow is derived from customers.

The attitudes judges hold toward auditors have eroded since the accounting debacles of Enron, WorldCom and others earlier in the decade. Not only do judges have lesser views of auditors, they also have conflicting views with auditors.

There are plenty of judgment calls associated with accrual accounting, giving managers some wiggle room in recognizing expenses and income. But can investors spot the wiggle? Do they identify and price that discretionary portion of earnings correctly?

Spending by state government in Arizona is on the rise.

Would your customers say that the services they received from your company are the services they expected to get? If not, then your company may suffer from a services quality gap.

In an ideal world, consumers' choices in relation to the incremental costs of producing goods and services would dictate what gets produced, and at what price. Choices should tell us about preferences.

While many scientists applaud former Vice President Al Gore and his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," some scientists have said that the film exaggerates the nature of environmental problems and/or makes conclusions that the science doesn't uphold.

With tax returns due on April 16, we get an extra day to file this year.